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Sochi Training

The mountains around here are sweet. They go over 10,500′ (3200 meters) which is impressive considering they start at the Black Sea.

There were better views with some blue skies this morning. Here’s Simi Hamilton:

From the venue you can look across the valley at the Olympic half pipe and alpine slopes:

Last night, coming out of one of the numerous construction sites around the venue was a full size Chevy 4×4. This is an amazing site on this side of the Atlantic.

I couldn’t fall asleep last night because of a combination of time change and nerves about the races. I went for a walk between midnight and 1 a.m. There was a ton of machinery operating at that hour. They work hard around here. I took this picture of the biggest project this morning.

On my walk last night I felt very trapped. The athletes’ village is surrounded by a huge fence with cameras watching every inch of it.

It’s not entirely clear whether the fence is to keep us in or others out.

The food here is interesting but good. For dinner last night they had salmon wrapped with creme cheese and crepes. It was awesome!

There’s a lot of food that is challenging to identify. Here’s Sim with his plate:

When you’re sick around here, nobody wants to be around you. Kikkan Randall is sick this week. Here she is sitting at her own table at dinner last night having a conversation with her wax tech Peter Johansson from a table away:

This sweet police vehicle was parked in front of our place this morning:

Skiing was good this morning. I did 12 by 90 seconds hard skating. I may be able to upload some video from that session later. Here’s another look at the Olympic stadium:

Russia gets extra starters this week because they are the host nation. There are lots of Russians out on the trails:

Lastly, here’s American Jessie Diggins skiing with German Denise Herrmann: